Hi Dee,
I wasn’t trying too get you going 
And I hope you weren’t lumping me into the category of “leave alone” beekeeper 
Choosing to go foundationless/small cell does not mean abandoning your bees to whatever! At least with the natural beeks I know.
So sorry that you have had to deal with permissive beekeepers rather than committed and thoughtful ones.
So it is cold here (50-55f) and raining and is going to get colder all week… is it ok to do the hive reduction when it is like this?
I would wait for a warmer day. At least sunny with very little wind, and work quickly. If the bees are actively flying, that is a good sign for a potentially suitable day too.
Ok thanks. Might not have one for a bit. I am about to go on a work trip too! Lets hope all goes well till i get back.
thanks
Don’t worry I know you didn’t intend to get me going. I’ve had a bad autumn with varroa. Just sounding off
For the east coast, when is the correct time to remove the super to prepare for wintering.
Here in NJ it is time to pull all harvestable honey and deal with mites. Once your mites are dealt with, and based on method used, you can hope for a fall flow of goldenrod and asters. Try and leave at least 60-80 lbs of honey for the bees.
Thank You. We were in the hive last night and saw a mite on one bee. We are going to harvest this week and treat the hives.
How will you treat. Last year I used strips but i think it killed them. I want to do it differently this year. How will you treat?
I will use Oxalic Acid and the “dribble” method on the frames. Just watched a You Tube video on it. You have to get the mixture right with the sugar water. I was also considering the vapor method with the OA. This is our first year with the bees and am learning a lot.
Just looked it up. Nice. I will try that this year too!
Prepare solution
Add 35 grams of oxalic dihydrate crystals (wood bleach) into the hot water. Stir but do not shake.
When the crystals are dissolved, add the 600 grams of sugar. Stir until dissolved.
Apply the solution
Dip the end of your syringe into the medicated syrup and pull back the plunger, filling the syringe to the 50 ml mark.
Starting at one end of the frames, dribble 5 ml of the solution along a seam that contains bees. (I like to start at the far end and dribble toward me.)
Once you have dribbled 5 ml, you must go on to a new seam. (A seam is the space between two frames or the space between a frame and a sidewall.)
After each seam of bees gets 5 ml of solution, you are done.
In any case, you cannot go over 50 ml per colony. If the hive has more than 10 seams, dribble where the most bees are. Alternately, you can give less than 5 ml per seam and do more than 10 seams, but you cannot go over 5 ml in any one seam or 50 ml total per colony.
Remember to apply the mixture directly onto the bees. Mixture that lands on the woodenware will be ignored by the bees and not moved throughout the colony.I would far prefer vapor (OAV) at this time of year. The dribble works best on broodless hives when it is cold enough for the bees to cluster. You will only get the phoretic mites (those on the surface of bees) with a dribble - it can’t get into the capped brood where the majority of the mites are located. OAV can’t get into the brood either, but it is very quick to do and can be repeated at 5 day intervals to really disrupt the mite life cycle and knock the numbers down.
If you don’t want to invest in a vape setup, Apivar or Apiguard would be my other choices, assuming the super is off. But you will need to rotate treatments to avoid resistance, so I would just get the stuff to vape. It works out cheaper in the end, anyway. 
What system do you use for vape?
I use:
For power, I use a jump starter (keep pressing the boost button):
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01HPCB2FW/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
For oxalic acid I use Savogran Wood Bleach from Home Depot. Hugely cheaper than the stuff sold by beekeeping suppliers, and just as pure. 
As usual you rock. One last question - I treated with strips too late last year and they died. remember that? sigh
So is it better to harvest, take off the honey super (flow hive), treat then wait 5-6 days and put the flow hive back - now and also in fall?
I am a bit naughty, and use OAV even when there is a nectar flow on. Be aware that my method is not EPA-approved! 
The reason I think this is safe to do is that OAV condenses/precipitates very quickly. By the time the super goes back on, there isn’t any floating around in the hive which could get into the super. There may be a bit on the bees, but not enough to contaminate the honey, and some oxalic acid is naturally present in honey anyway. I know of plenty of people in Europe who use this method too, and have never had a problem. Your risk if you choose to do it. 
THANK YOU!! As usual i learn so much from you.
Your method may not be “approved” but tests have shown there is no OA in the honey after treatment.
I like you method Dawn
@Dawn_SD if I use the trickle method do I need to take the flow hive off?